Music Video Types

Music videos can be divided into 3 main types: Performance, narrative and concept, these are often combined. Performance videos concentrate on the artist performing their song, this type is widely used for pop, rock and rap/hip hop songs where the image of the artist is important.

Performance videos for rock videos often portray a performance set-up similarly to a live show. However they, for the most part, allow us to see the scene from angles which we would not usually view it from. They do this in a way which draws particular attention to the artist’s talent, for example there are often close ups of the singer delivering vocal lines in the verse and chorus but the attention will be diverted to other members of the band such as the guitarist while they perform a solo. A good example of a performance music video would be Foo Fighters “The Pretender” (Sam Brown, 2007) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-EU-Xwm7RY (Embedding has been disabled)

As is often the case, this music video contains elements of narrative mixed in with the performance. In many music videos the narrative chosen relates to the meaning of the song or the lyrics. A classic example of where the idea of the narrative has been taken further than just including the song is Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (John Landis, 1983), in many ways the 13 minute long video draws more comparisons to a short film than a music video. The video features an extended introduction scene involving Michael Jackson turning into a werewolf in front of his female date; this is then revealed to be part of a movie being watched by Michael and the same girl. Additionally the original song is extended and edited so that certain parts fit in with certain scenes, this gives a high emphasis on the music video as the final product as oppose to the track which is usually the case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_MuUcxHATo (Embedding has been disabled)

The final type of video is concept; these are usually videos which contain elements which are generally unclassifiable as narrative or performance but usually still fit with the song. On example would be Thice’s “Digital Sea” (Andrew Gura, 2007) the video is made up entirely of one shot which looks down upon the shop floor of a supermarket. There are then various time lapse and jump cut based effects which fit in time with the music. During the chorus the lighting changes to blue and we see cloaked figures dancing and moving around. The only deviation from this one central shot is right at the end where the camera tilts downwards to reveal the band members standing there.